When considering the best-known “tool” watches — the Submariners and Speedmasters of the world — you come to realize that these are design objects that have been kicking around for quite a while already. They were born out of a post-War burst of creativity that enveloped the world, and they’re still going strong.
But consider some of the best-known dress watches of the last century or so, and you quickly realize that these timepieces are even older: Cartier’s Tank was born during World War I, and Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Reverso, with it’s flippable case, will shortly be 90 years old. These are watches that remain more than simply popular today — they’re embedded within the horological and stylistic zeitgeist, not merely as historical objects, but as living, evolving icons.
We won’t recount the entire story of the Reverso here — for that, you can read this piece we wrote last year after a visit to JLC’s atelier in Switzerland. (The short story is: British officers stationed in India were breaking their glass watch crystals while playing polo. They requested a solution to this problem, and, very long story short, the Reverso was born. The watch could flip over to protect the glass crystal such that only the steel back was exposed — a unique solution to a fairly esoteric problem.)